New to capturing.....

[uka100]

Hi I would really like to start capturing from VHS tapes I have recorded from the TV. Is all I need a TV card, VCR and the VHS tape? Also my computer is in a different room to my TV so all I need to do is bring my VCR in the computer room right? Sorry for all the questions

Regards

Martin

[tito13kfm]

Welcome to the wonderful world of capturing and converting. Do yourself a favor, read all the guides you possibly can in the How To section. Also check out lordsmurf.com as he is one smart mofo.

But you are right in assuming that all you technically need is a vcr, tv capture card and the tape. (plus the right software of course). Now what you will probably end up wanting to get is way more than what you need.

I started with a 4 head vcr, a crappy tv card, and a 40 gig h/d.

I now have DVHS, Firewire card, 2-80gig h/ds, DV Camcorder, and am seriously considering the ADVC100 (or whatever it's called... it's 2:37am and i'm on too much tylenol 3).

Good luck in your quest.

[budz]

tito13kfm wrote:

now have DVHS, Firewire card, 2-80gig h/ds, DV Camcorder, and am seriously considering the ADVC100 (or whatever it's called... it's 2:37am and i'm on too much tylenol 3).

I just got the CANOPUS ADVC-100 and did my first vhs conversion using ulead movie factory. I don't regret buying it at all. It's a great device seize the moment and purchase one. You won't regret it. No audio/video sync problems at all. Wanna share some of that tylenol 3 with me?

[rhegedus]

What you do depends on how serious you are about doing it.

If it's just odd clips you want to capture then you don't need much more than a cheap TV card hooked up to your VCR (use a long coax cable if you don't want to move the VCR) and then try a few of the capture guides on the left.

I started with a cheap Hauppauge TV card, captured with VirtualDub, and encoded to mpeg (VCD) with TMPGEnc for watching back on TV from disk.
After about 3 months I outgrew the Hauppauge and bought a Canopus ADVC-100 and then a DVD burner after that.

How you do it could cost anything from about £50 for a cheap card to £500 for a dedicated VCR, good capture card, good burner and good cables to link it all up.

The choice is yours..................

[uka100]

Hi thanks for all the advice I have read all the guides, doesnt seem that complicated (probably gonna regret saying that), I have 2 questions....

Which card would you recommend me to get (UK) I will not be using it that often and it'll only be on vhs tapes and maybe through my NTL box if I get a long cable. But I still want decent quality .

Would the card come with the cables I need to connect it to my computer? What sort of cable are they?

[rhegedus]

I use my Canopus to capture from NTL cable too.

If you're not going to use it that often, I suggest getting an All-In-Wonder graphics card. Lordsmurf swears by them and has written some great guides for their set-up and usage.

There is some debate as to which of the AIW or Canopus capture solutions is better, but if you get an AIW card you'll also get a very good graphics card at the same time.

This is what you can expect from capturing:

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=192925

[uka100]

Thanks for the advice, is it easy to connect to your NTL cable box, what does that involve?

Also what is the absolute cheapest I could find a decent card for?

[feenix]

uka100,

I've been doing this for the last couple of years from the NTL cable box. My vcr is connected to the cable box and the cable box is connected to the pc. Consequently I can capture either vcr or cable with only the one connection. I use an ATI AIW radeon and get excellent results recording in mpg2. I have connected the cable box to my pc by using the 3 phono plugs (yellow for video,white and red for audio) on the back of the cable box to connect to an external 'box' (same connections) that came with the ATI AIW.

I'm sure other people will give you different options on how to go about this and probably most of them will work so it's going to be a bit of a lottery on what you think best suits you.

[rhegedus]

I do it this way:

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/images/guides/p739835/3b.jpg

But you'd have to use the coax output from the NTL box if you use the AIW.

[feenix]

rhegedus

No you don't ! As I said earlier I use the composite connections

[rhegedus]

Sorry - didn't see your post before I submitted mine.

I haven't used any AIW cards, but the ones I've seen only have coax input - wasn't aware of any 'external box'.

[rhegedus]

However if the PC isn't near the NTL box, I can't imagine composite cables being up to the job over a long distance - isn't there a length limitation with these?

[feenix]

Fair enough,

My card is a couple of years old so maybe the newer ones aren't the same. It came with an an external connector for composite and svhs inputs connected to the AIW with a flying lead

[rhegedus]

Do you use this NTL box?

http://www.pace.co.uk/paceproducts/product.asp?section=CA&product=192

[feenix]

We're getting out of step here!!

My composite cables are 18 feet long and I get no loss of signal

[feenix]

Well my cable box looks identical to that but I don't know if it's the same model number. Again I've had it for a few years so maybe the newer ones are different. Mine comes with two scarts and the composite connections

[rhegedus]

My composite cables are 18 feet long and I get no loss of signal

OK - must have mis-read something.

Well my cable box looks identical to that but I don't know if it's the same model number. Again I've had it for a few years so maybe the newer ones are different. Mine comes with two scarts and the composite connections.

Is there a timer facility on it to get it to change channels at a certain time? I've had mine for a couple of years now and haven't worked it out - NThell customer services are shite!

[rhegedus]

Damn double post!

[feenix]

Yep I can change channels on the timer!

When you set a 'reminder' take the option to 'auto tune' (blue button I think). This way, together wth the ATI scheduler ,I can record different channels if I'm out and about.

[rhegedus]

Whenever I set the reminder, the blue bar stays on the screen and covers everything up!

I'll have to figure it out.

Thanks for the info.

[feenix]

er............I don't get a blue bar ! Makes me wonder if NTL are using different systems for different parts of the country? I'm in Hampshire where are you based?

[uka100]

Ok so lets jut say I wanted to do it from a vcr, I bring the vcr and tape into the computer room connect the vcr to my tv card play the tape and use whatever software I have to record, is that right? What card (cheapish) would be good for doing this?

EDITh and the NTL box thing when you set a reminder does it come up with 2 options, reminder and auto tune? If so choose auto tune, if not it may be your old NTL box I have a relatively new one and the functions is on mine.

[rhegedus]

er............I don't get a blue bar ! Makes me wonder if NTL are using different systems for different parts of the country? I'm in Hampshire where are you based?

London.

Ok so lets jut say I wanted to do it from a vcr, I bring the vcr and tape into the computer room connect the vcr to my tv card play the tape and use whatever software I have to record, is that right? What card (cheapish) would be good for doing this?

I think you can pick up a Hauppauge TV card at PC world for under £50, but you'd probably out grow it pretty quickly. I think you can probably get an 64Mb RAM AIW for about £100.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/sapphire_ati_graphics_cards.html

EDITh and the NTL box thing when you set a reminder does it come up with 2 options, reminder and auto tune? If so choose auto tune, if not it may be your old NTL box I have a relatively new one and the functions is on mine.

Nope, just press green button for reminder.

You just have to love NTL. I was promised cable broadband in Aug '01. Still not available in London!

[feenix]

uka100,

Yeah I would follow rhegedus's advice. However (there's always an 'however'!)...........it may not be just as simple as that because a lot will depend on your pc spec. Video capture takes a lot of processing power if you want to avoid dropped frames, bad audio sync etc. Not to mention enough hard disk space!. So just fitting a capture card may not be the end of your hardware advenure if your pc spec is fairly low.

[rhegedus]

Yeah, uka100! - Post your PC specs!

[uka100]

I'm screwed, doesn't matter then. If I ever get a new computer I'll post here again thanks anyway .

[rhegedus]

Don't give up so quick! What have you got now?

[uka100]

Just tell me the sorta spec ill need, mine wont even be half of it.

[rhegedus]

My first captures were done with a PIII 700, 256Mb Ram and a 15Gb HD using a crappy Hauppauge Win TV capture card. Only dropped about 10 frames an hour (that's a loss of 10 out of 90,000).

[uka100]

PIII 451Mhz
320MB RAM
8Gb HD

Not really good enough I'm guessing...